


The Ring Game

by akire_yta



Series: the drawer sessions [15]
Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: And Other Shenanigans, F/M, Marriage, john and penny play them all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-11
Updated: 2017-11-11
Packaged: 2019-01-31 16:50:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12686145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akire_yta/pseuds/akire_yta
Summary: john and penny settling down and gaming the system





	The Ring Game

Waking up to find your father in your flat, making you and your best friend breakfast was...disconcerting, to say the least.

“Weren’t you in New York when I last spoke to you? And wasn’t the last time I spoke to you yesterday?” John asked, rubbing sleep from his eyes, mindful that he was in the fluffy bunny slippers Penny got him as a gag gift for his birthday.

Jeff just beamed at him and went back to flipping eggs.  “It was.  Then I spoke to your brother, who had some interesting things to say about your personal life.  I thought I’d come get it from the source.”  His dad looking both happy and yet at the same time winking like he was in on a saucy secret took this moment beyond disconcerting and into surreal.  “Something you want to tell me, Johnny?”

John resisted the urge to glance back at his bedroom, where he’d left Penny sleeping.  “We had a late night in.”

“Try again, Johnny.”

“Don’t call me Johnny,” he said on automatic, batting the spatula away.  “And whatever mental matchmaking or wedding planning you are doing in your head, stop it?”

“Who’s getting married?” a sleepy-sweet voice asked from behind him.  A second later, Penny’s arms wrapped around his waist as she shoved her head under his arm and took a hug.  “I love weddings.”

John was pretty sure his dad had actual hearts eyes.  “Pen, hon?  Meet my dad, Jeff Tracy.”

# # #

“I could cope if they hated each other,” John whined down the phone to Virgil.  “But  they’re  _ getting along _ .”

Virgil sounded distinctly unsympathetic.  “Oh dear,” he said flatly.  “Your gorgeous, intelligent, hilarious, heiress girlfriend is getting along with your dad. What a tragedy, how will you cope?”

John had given up correcting people that Penny was just his friend.  Who had slept in his bed five nights out of the past seven.  But still, friend. He focused on the critical issue.  “They’re scheming, Virg.  Did you know dad knows her dad?  I swear I caught him on a conference call last night with Lord Hugh.  They’re planning something.”

“John,” Virgil said, not unkindly.  “On behalf of all us tragically and permanently single folk?  Shut the fuck up.”

# # #

Penny had had a key to his apartment for forever.  Her clothes were in his wardrobe, her mug next to his in the cupboard.  In the end, there were only three more boxes to move.  “Why did you keep your lease so long?” John asked, glancing around Penny’s old place to check they hadn’t missed anything.

She patted his cheek.  “Because sometimes, darling, you’re rather hard to read.”

John was still frowning as Penny sauntered out.  Grabbing the last box, he hurried down after her.  “Pen, what does that mean? Pen? Pen!”

# # #

John had dodged, dived, and outright lied, but Jeff now had Penny’s number, and he appealed to a higher power.

John thought Penny and Kansas would get along like oil and water, or a naked flame and gas fumes.  But instead, Penny was over on the other side of the road, laughing from under the straw hat Grandma had plopped on her head.  

Jeff wondered if the boys knew their heads turned like they were competing for the Synchronized Meerkat Leering title, the way they all, as one, tilted their heads to admire Penny’s ass in those new jeans of hers as she clambered up into the back of the truck.  “John, are you riding back here too?”

John almost left skid marks in the dirt in his haste to jump up next to her.  “So,” Ruth said, standing next to her son as the rest of her grandkids piled on and into the truck.  “Spring wedding or summer, do you think?”

“Summer,” Jeff said with a laugh.  “John will need an extra three months to finish extracting his head from his ass to see what’s right in front of him.”

Ruth snorted.  “Fifty says it’s spring.  That’s a girl with her head screwed on straight.”

Jeff held out his hand.  “Deal, mother.  Deal.”

# # #

John’s apartment was now JohnandPenny’s apartment, their styles mingling almost effortlessly to create something chic and unique.  Jeff glanced at Gordon and nodded as they watched Penny and John make dinner in an artless choreography of movement, the pair of them stepping around each other in the tiny kitchen like water around a stone.

“John? I call best man.  I’ll fight Scott for it if I have to.”

“Huh?” John asked, brow furrowing.  “What?”

Jeff was watching Penny watch John with a sad smile.

This was getting tragic.  It was time for an intervention.

# # #

“John,” Virgil said, standing from the ring of seats around John and gripping him firmly by the shoulders.  “If you don’t marry that girl, I will.”

“You’re gay.”

“For her, I’d make an exception,” Virgil teased back.  “She adores you.  You adore her.  Put a fucking ring on it.”

John glanced at his father, who didn’t even blink at the language.  “Really dad?”

“Son,” Jeff said, getting up.  “If you don’t,  _ I fucking will _ .”

# # #

“So, what did your dad want?” Penny asked, reaching to stretch up to the highest hanging basket to trickle some water over the plant.

John stepped up behind her, pulling her back into his stomach, kissing her hair. “They wanted to inform me, in no uncertain terms, that I should marry you and make an honest woman of you and a happy man of me.  And a very happy father-in-law.”

Penny put down the watering can and twisted in John’s arms to drape her hands around his neck.  “So how dead will we be when he learns that we eloped a year ago.”

John shrugged and kissed her nose.  “Give him another six weeks and he’ll be so happy you’re his daughter in law he won’t care how we got hitched.”

Penny laughed and used her hands to hoist herself up, wrapping her legs around his waist, confident of his arms around her, holding her tight.  “Six weeks huh? However will we pass the time?”  She squealed in joy as John pressed his mouth to her throat and turned to tumble them onto the sofa.


End file.
